CONNECTIONS OF ARTISTIC AND NATURAL SCIENCE EDUCATION: GAMES EMPLOYING DEPICTION MEANS AS A STIMULUS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

According to the primary school natural science education curricula cognitive activity has to be diverse and its content must be permanently changed. It is purposeful to supplement the educational process with children's literature, music, folklore, acting, drawing and games (General Curricula and Education Standards, 2003). Game is one of the most universal and efficient child's primary education strategies. Creative and orientated combination of game and artistic activities in the process of natural science education enables to seek that primary school students both perceive the environment as the aesthetic totality and get used to take care of it, both notice the beauty of nature phenomena and objects and feel the need to take care of nature, both perceive the interdependence of animate and inanimate nature and feel the interrelation of nature with various arts and artistic activities. Observation is the activity that is accessible to primary class pupils and serves as a basis for more complex steps in the teaching and learning process. Because the observation of the nearest environment can be strongly encouraged by the wish to depict the objects of the nearest environment in various ways, this article presents the examples of games employing depiction means, which not only integrate natural science education and artistic education but also promote active cognitive environmental research activity.